"Being associated with Millennials is so embarrassing," says Melissa, a
third-year student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It's a chilly night
in late October, and Melissa and her friends are at a campus bar discussing
their summer internship prospects. Most in the group are already talking to
recruiters at top companies in their chosen field.

"In TV shows and stuff, there's this idea that our generation is really
incompetent and unrealistic," says Anton, Melissa's boyfriend, or 'bae', as she
calls him. "But I don't think that applies to people like us, who are still in
college. We're different, I think."

"Being associated with Millennials is so embarrassing."

Anton's statement echoes claims made by other young Millennials and the
marketing professionals that study them. A number of breathless articles in
publications like Elle, Forbes and the New York Times have recently proclaimed a
"generational divide" between younger and older Millennials. The divide between
younger and older Millennials is more than manufactured hype: pollsters focused
on the upcoming primary elections have discovered striking statistical
differences between the two age groups.

If September 11th was the defining disaster of the older Millennial cohort, the
2008 Financial Crisis was the defining moment for Young Millennials. During
their formative late teen years, Young Millennials witnessed the crash of a
housing bubble that few even realized existed. Their parents, many of whom
participated in half-baked, abortive attempts at revolutionary culture during
the 70's and 80's, gave Young Millennials pragmatic advice about preparing for a
career in a difficult economy.

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Instead of growing up during a period of hysterical American exceptionalism,
Young Millennials grew up during a time when dealing with economic and foreign
policy realities finally became unavoidable. The failure of the War on Terror
and the financial crisis firmly reminded Americans that the 'American Century'
was over.

If September 11th was the defining disaster of the older Millennial cohort, the 2008 Financial Crisis was the defining moment for Young Millennials.

Some portraits of Young Millennials focus on the goal-oriented, intense, and
pre-professional nature of the group. "We are especially impressed to see how
Millennial teens are resiliently and optimistically responding to adversity and
preparing to win in the game of life," said Stephen Friedman, President of MTV.
Other portraits have focused on the fact that Young Millennials are the first
true digital natives, and seem to handle the ambiguities and stresses created by
the Internet with more aplomb than their older Millennial peers.

Over the last half decade, popular and alternative culture has shifted to
reflect the changing Millennial mindset. Indie rock, pop punk, and the poppy
hip hop tracks of the early 00's are gone, replaced by trap, EDM, and aggressive
superstars like Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, and a rebranded Kanye West.
According to the editor of a lifestyle branding company, Young Millennials are
more likely to understand "irony and identity crossover" due to their
experiences with culturally saturated Internet environment.

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In addition, aspirational movies and TV shows like "The Social Network", "Gossip
Girl", "Suits", "Girls", and "Mad Men" have helped to craft a psyche keenly
aware of unequal distributions of wealth, happiness, and beauty. Young
Millennials grew up with characters willing to sacrifice their own mental health
and happiness for a chance at success. Perhaps for this reason, a recent
study
called Young Millennial males the "New Traditionalists". According to the
study, Young Millennial males are more likely than older Millennials to believe
that men should be the breadwinners and that they're the "strong silent type",
and less likely to be okay with sharing vulnerabilities.

However, Young Millennial males are not complete reactionaries. According to
the study, "young millennial males find it easier to talk about subjects like
relationships, health and insecurities that not long ago were considered too
private or 'unmanly' to share with guy friends," when compared to older
Millennial males. Writers like Jennifer Chan have posited the emergence of
"omega males" who combine the best features of alpha
males and beta males, without all of the baggage of obsolescent modes of
masculinity.

Young Millennials grew up with characters willing to sacrifice their own mental health and happiness for a chance at success.

Critiques of older Millennials are often gender-specific. Terms like like 'bro'
and 'manchild' emerged to describe underachieving older Millennial men.
These terms target the supposed inability of Millennial men to uphold American
standards of masculinity and independence. More recently, new media
professionals like Gaby Dunn (b. 1988) and Alan Henson (b. 1988) have
popularized words like "fuckboy" and "softboy", which are focused on men who use
privilege and manipulation to extract sexual favors.

Older Millennial women are often the losers in the intersection of Young
Millennial and older Millennial sexual politics. According to Sasha, a
30-something living in New York, "older Millennial males who have their shit
together have the opportunity to form relationships with younger women, who
often find their power and relative success very attractive. This doesn't
really work the other way around, which creates an imbalance." Perhaps this
imbalance has prompted the creation of a diverse vocabulary of terms used to
'slam' Millennial men.

Terms like 'bro' and 'manchild' emerged in the early 2000's to describe underachieving older Millennial men.

However, the idea of the Young Millennial as goal-oriented and pre-professional
is far from universal, however. Another prominent face of the Young Millennial
is the "social justice warrior". For Young Millennials, social networking sites
like Tumblr and Facebook have become the primary site for a new political
discourse. Many writers in popular press have expressed their discomfort with
the praxis of Young Millennials, who have pushed for the introduction of
concepts like "safe spaces", "trigger warnings" and other social justice
concerns into the fabric of institutions of higher education.

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Other Young Millennials are simply suffering from the fallout of the financial
crisis. A Zogby Analytics poll posted on
Forbes.com
characterizes Young Millennials as "economic victims", showing that Young
Millennials are almost 10% more likely to fear losing their job, and are 8% more
likely to have gone without food for 24 hours due to lack of money. In
addition, Young Millennials are more likely to be non-religious. Perhaps, the
precarity Young Millennials have experienced is the reason they are polarized,
and more likely to support highly
polarized
candidates like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump over more moderate candidates
like Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. Young Millennials on both sides of the
political spectrum are able to see through crafted media campaigns, and are only
responsive to truly radical messages.

It's unclear which parts of the Young Millennial worldview will become dominant.
But, if Melissa and her 'bae' are any indicator, Young Millennials seem ready to
work towards radical change in pragmatic ways, driven by by own desire for
success and recognition. Hopefully, they will avoid the fate of their older
Millennial forebearers, and fulfill the promise of the 'next greatest
generation'.